The nation celebrated the 60
years of Pakistan's independence on Tuesday last with the renewed pledge
to make Pakistan a modern and forward-looking Muslim country. Pakistan
which emerged as the largest Muslim state on the globe in August 1947,
has made tremendous progress in various fields over the last six
decades, and is now considered one of the fastest growing economies in
Asia. Various political, social and cultural organizations held
meetings, seminars and rallies to mark the day and highlighted its
significance with special reference to the liberation of the South Asian
Muslims from British imperialism and Hindu dominance.

August is the month when you
find the countrymen in their most creative and festive mood as the
countdown for independence celebrations begin on August 01. During the
first half of the month, festive spirit permeate the city. ''No doubt
the situation is quite better when compared with situation in 1947 but
collective thinking and collective efforts are direly needed to bring
about a visible change. Despite passage of 60 long years, we are still
facing the problems like electricity shortage, poor infrastructure and
high cost of doing business'', complained some businessmen while talking
to PAGE.

The Lahore Chamber of Commerce
and Industry (LCCI) President Mr. Shahid Hassan Sheikh told this scribe
he is worried over the business atmosphere in Pakistan. He said: ''look,
we are a nation of over 16 million people with almost all the resources
in abundance but economically we are nowhere. We have been facing the
problem of governance for the last two to three decades and the
governance needs to be improved to move on the path to development''.

Mr. Shahid said there are a few
areas which if taken care of, the situation would be totally otherwise.
The government should immediately divert its attention towards Education
and technical training. A number of ills could be removed with a little
focus in these two areas. There is a huge shortage of skilled labour in
Pakistan. "You cannot find a good carpenter or a mason with
ease."

The LCCI President said that
the government should utilize maximum funds for establishing technical
training institutes in the country. In this regard, the Lahore Chamber
of Commerce was ready to lend support to the government, he added. Mr.
Shahid Hassan Sheikh also pleaded for a strong industry-university
linkage saying that the university should design all courses keeping in
view the needs of the industry. He said that today we don't need simple
MAs and BAs but we need engineers, doctors and administrators equipped
with modern day knowledge and techniques.

Unfurling the pages of history,
the LCCI President said in 1947, the industrial units in Pakistan could
be counted on fingers. At the time of independence, there were 921
registered industrial units in undivided India. Out of these, only 34
units were located in Pakistan, which also included East Pakistan (now
Bangladesh). Total jobs provided by these industries to a population of
over 60 million people were only 26,400. These industrial units were
comparatively of small size involving simple processes of production. At
that time, East Pakistan produced jute while all the jute mills were
located in India. The Railway Workshop at Mughalpura Lahore was one of
the best engineering facilities in the sub-continent. This
state-of-the-art engineering workshop of that time is now in shambles.
We did not build up the excellent engineering facility Pakistan
inherited at the time of independence, he added. Besides the large
Mughalpura Workshop, Pakistan also inherited a small base of engineering
industries. These industries were established in and around small towns
surrounding Lahore. There were a number of small manufacturers in
Gujranwala, Daska, Sialkot and Wazirabad, which produced engineering
goods such as machine tools, diesel engines (5-50 HP), surgical
instruments, oil expellers, fans, cinema projectors, machinery parts and
components, etc. Some of these products were even exported at that time,
he pointed out.

He further said that there was
hardly any textile base. Colony Textile Mills Okara was the only textile
mill worth mentioning. The area falling under Pakistan produced cotton,
which was consumed by textile mills based in India, he added. ''Today
Pakistan is a force to reckon with in textiles. However, the Indian
textile industry is much larger and fulfills its domestic needs from
locally produced cotton. India, in fact, is the second largest producer
and exporter of cotton in the world. Pakistan, on the other hand, has to
depend on the import of cotton to run its domestic industry'', he added.

He said there were three sugar
mills in the country, one was in the then East Pakistan and two in
present Pakistan. At the time of partition, Pakistan had no paper or
paper board mill. Now it has over 70 such units, some producing fine
paper for text books, periodicals and school note books. Cigarette
production has increased from 241 million to several billions. There was
no fertilizer factory. Now Pakistan produces both nitrogen and phosphate
fertilizers. It is, in fact, self-sufficient in urea production, he
said. The country had no edible oil processing industry, no bicycle
manufacturing unit, no soda ash plant or polyester fibre unit. Electric
bulbs and tube lights had to be imported as there was no such industry.
Steel products for construction or other use were imported. Now Pakistan
produces these items. The multinational producers of soda ash and PTA
though have been given undue duty protection, which has made industries
using these materials uncompetitive in the global markets. The energy
supply was mainly met from coal and kerosene. The electric supply was
limited to main cities as the total power generation capacity did not
exceed 60 MW, he enumerated.

He further said the total
length of railway track laid by the British was about 12,000 km, which
Pakistan inherited. This was an excellent infrastructure, which has now
been destroyed to a large extent. We never updated the railway
infrastructure, the cheapest mode of goods' transportation. The goods'
transportation capacity of the railways has declined by 10 times in the
last 40 years, increasing the cost of transportation. There has hardly
been any addition to the railway track in the last 60 years, he added.

In the agriculture sector,
wheat production increased from 3.3 million tons in 1947 to 23 million
tons this year. Rice production rose from 0.68 million tons to 5.1
million tons. Sugarcane production increased 10 times and cotton
production rose 12 times, Mr. Shahid said. Chairman Pakistan Industrial
and Traders Associations Front Mian Abuzar Shad told this scribe that
Pakistan has huge potential for becoming Asian tiger, but the need is to
channelise the resources and labour force. Pakistan has huge labour
force and by making them skillful, the country can achieve progress and
prosperity in the comity of nations. Mian Abuzar Shad said the
government should make efforts to overcome the energy crisis and also
minimize the role of government to maximum extent.

The government should play the
role of facilitator for the industry and help it to become competitive
in the globalized competitive environment.